That was the first sleepy thought I had on the Saturday morning car ride from Seattle to Snoqualmie Falls. As 6:30 stretched into 7, there were still only deep blue outlines of discernible mountains around me. A new acquaintance had informed me that there was "Nothing in town", but this turned out to be the kind of mistruth only city-dwellers, who rarely leave the invisible lines of "their" metropolis, speak.

Snoqualmie had everything. Steve's donuts (try the glaze), SnoValley Coffee (the Cuban Latte was the perfect mixture of sweet and espresso), and a stretch of other shops. My ultimate destination was Snoqualmie Falls, but I was happy to wait out the early parts of sunrise in town.

The first view of the falls from the observation platform made me say "I live in Washington" out loud three times, like Dorothy clicking her shoes. The air was dotted with mist, my stomach was doing the "STAY BACK" flip-flop, and the color of the water was just starting to show its clean blues

The descent down to the river and lower viewing deck is more of a nature trail than a true hike. The old trees and signs marking plants and animals guide the way and, with a 250-foot descent over 0.4 miles, this is an easy trail for most.

Photo by Justin Danks

You have two choices at the bottom and I recommend doing both: walk the boardwalk or go down to the riverbed.

The view from the end of the boardwalk:

The view from the riverbed:

As a quick Google image search will tell you, it is possible to go past the end of the boardwalk and closer to the falls. From what I could see, it involves carefully hopping part of the fence and climbing some rocks down. I couldn't quite work up the courage to do so this visit. Maybe next time.